The present invention relates to baggage diverters and particularly to high-speed baggage diverters in a conveying system. Although the invention is especially advantageous to diverting articles in airport baggage conveying systems, or the like, the invention may be used to divert any kind of article on any kind of conveying system.
Diverter mechanisms have been employed to control the movement of articles on a conveyor system. A flipper arm of the diverter mechanism is operable to engage the articles to selectively move articles on and off conveyor lines. With an ever increasing need to move articles at higher conveyor speeds, many diverter designs are unable to actuate in the time required to transfer articles from one conveyor to another conveyor. Conventional diverter systems such as those shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 6,607,065, issued Aug. 19, 2003, selectively engage articles traveling on a conveyor to move the articles transversely off the conveyor. While adequate, these systems must apply forces to the article in a short time span to make it transversely a surfeit distance to remove it from the conveyor. The mechanism used in conventional diverters tend to result in acceleration-induced forces that increase in proportion with diverter speed, resulting in noise and potential damage to the baggage and to diverter components.
The ever increasing volume of articles traveling along conveyor systems creates a need for a diverter assembly capable of operating at higher speeds, while minimizing the impact with the diverter and damage to the articles.
In addition articles, such as baggage, typically comprise a variety of types, sizes and shapes that are randomly positioned on the conveying surface. These variables make some necessary processing steps such as x-ray examination and other article inspections difficult. Therefore, there is a need for a diverter system that positions and aligns articles on the conveyor system so that they can be properly processed.